The struggles of exploited workers in a 1950s factory. It's 1956. Middle aged Miss Merton applies for and gets a job at the Southern Textiles Dye Works – the Dyehouse. She works in the office area, doing admin and other basic tasks that ensures the factory runs smoothly, or as smoothly as possible. The factory manager is the aggressive and duplicitous Mr Renshaw, a sexual predator who often hits on the young female employees. One such victim is Patty Nicholls. She's an honest worker, hoping to one day marry and settle down. Troubled by Renshaw's attentions, Patty confides in Oliver Henerey, a street smart co-worker who lives in a share house with two socialists. The workers at the Dyehouse plough on despite their troubles. We learn of Miss Merton's emotionally complicated backstory (she's presumed by many to be a dull spinster), how one longtime worker and dye specialist, Hughie, is being unfairly pushed out of his position and the worries for financially stretched Barney, who's wife is expecting a child. As the broad cast of the novel's characters struggle to get ahead, avoid trouble and make ends meets, greater forces than themselves are at work. The upper management and board of directors are keen on rationalising the factory. They want to cut costs. The writing is on the wall. Despite this terrible cloud hanging over the workers, it is Miss Merton who has the fire in the belly. She stiffens her back and is ready to fight for a better future. Mena Calthorpe (1905 – 1996) joined the Communist Party in 1933, leaving after four years. She then joined the Australian Labor Party, aligning herself with the Party's left wing. Calthorpe's politics and her own experiences as a factory worker certainly informs The Dyehouse. It is a socialist novel very much in the vein of novels like Walter Greenwood's Love on the Dole and Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered-Philanthropists. This may make it sound dour and stodgy. Anything but! Calthorpe writes in a beautiful, crisp prose, contrasting industrial muck and pollution with beautiful nature descriptions. The joy of sunny days and birdsong is accentuated, highlighting how workers manage to snatch pleasurable moments despite the colourless daily grind. The novel skilfully weaves together a compelling cast of characters and their differing stories, making The Dyehouse compulsive reading. Calthorpe offers realism, but carefully tempered and neatened into a fine artistry. It's a great shock after having read The Dyehouse to realise this classic of socialist literature isn't better known or studied in school. It addresses key issues of the conflict between labour and capital that still rage today. The Dyehouse, by Mena Calthorpe. Published by Text. $12.95 Review by Chris Saliba Comments are closed.
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